Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Tuesday 07/31 A.M. Quickie:Walsh, KG, MLB Trades, Gore Save Sports!

Yesterday could be The Day That Saved Sports.

After two weeks of relentlessly (and unprecedentedly) crappy news – Vick, Donaghy, Bonds, Tour de France – it was never tougher to be a sports fan.

Yesterday's overflow of non-scandalous big news was an amazing reminder: Sports fans are entirely resilient. You could get whiplash with the speed which fans dropped a focus on the bad stuff and turned their attention to the promising.

Some cranks and cynics might gripe about the "Instant History" outlook: What does it say that sports fans are so quick to move on from the soul-sucking news and to embrace the reviving news?

It says this: No matter what the short-term problems, sports are guaranteed to provide SOMETHING that brings us back to a focus on the sports, not the scandals.

On to the rundown...

R.I.P. Bill Walsh: As I said yesterday, he was arguably the greatest – and most influential – offensive mind in football.

(I encourage you to leave Walsh-specific comments in the dedicated Walsh post below this one. Meanwhile, KSK has the definitive -- and simply put -- tribue. Worth your time to read it.)

KG to the Celtics: I gave my analysis in a stand-alone post yesterday afternoon (feel free to leave KG-specific comments there), but let me provide it again:

This is a win-win:

The Celtics become instant contenders in the East – and regain their national relevancy. (The downside? Anything less than an East title is a failure. Welcome to Expectationsville, Celtics Nation. Consider that for a second: No one believes for a second that this team can actually win an NBA title, and even an East title is no lock. This for three players, none of whom have proven to be conference-champion material. Yet the demands are there.)

The T'wolves finally shed The Big Baggage and can begin to reposition themselves as an "up-and-coming" young team, anchored around one of the NBA's best young big-small combos: Al Jefferson and Randy Foye. (Hint to Kevin McHale: Model yourselves after the Warriors and run-run-run.) Their fans get nothing if not renewed hope. And that's not bad.

Interesting takes on KG filtering in. Start with this one from DLIC of Free Darko. I agree: KG has never been a personality that would seem to mesh with Celtics fans' epic sense of entitlement. (By the way, HUGE kudos to Celtics Blog for actually breaking the KG story. Number of mainstream media outlets crediting him? Take the under.)

MLB Trade Deadline: Is the Braves' acquisition of Mark Teixeira enough to shift the balance of power in the NL East?

(That depends on what you think of the Mets' acquisition of Luis Castillo. By the way, speaking of mid-season acquisitions, Pedro is going to make his first minor-league start tonight tomorrow night. If he can return by September 1, that's a bigger pickup than anything anyone else in the NL will do.)

Who's going to get Jermaine Dye? And who's going to get Eric Gagne? (And will the Red Sox get BOTH? They've cooled on Dye in the last half-day, but still, it's possible.)

MLB Milestones Tonight: We're tracking Bonds 755, A-Rod 500 and the one with the best chance of happening tonight: Glavine 300.

MLB Stud: Phillies, who have won 4 straight and are 3 games behind the Mets for first in the NL East. Oh, and they made a deal to trade for Kyle Lohse. Watch that fantasy player wire! Will he help you in a late-season push (or crush your dreams with his inconsistency?)

NFL Training Camp: Frank Gore breaks his hand in the first practice and will likely miss the preseason. This is huge, if only because Gore was poised to become THE hot fantasy football first-round choice. Will it affect his draft status? The team seems to think he'll be ready by the end of preseason. (And MDS says "he'll be fine" over at Fanhouse, and I'll trust his opinion. Bring on the fantasy drafts!)

Speaking of Fantasy Football, I am juggling a ludicrous number of leagues this fall. This one might be the most intriguing: It's Yahoo Sports' Bloggers League, featuring the likes of the guys from Kissing Suzy Kolber, the Mighty MJD, Will Leitch and AJ Daulerio from Deadspin, Orson Swindle from EDSBS, N.O.I.S. -- and me.

I believe you'll be able to follow the league publicly, allowing me to deploy one of my favorite Jackie Childs' lines: "This is the most public yet of my many humiliations." Here's the link to the intro by league Commish, Andy Behrens.

Brady Quinn still holding out: Seriously, ever since the calendar flipped to 2007, this guy has been an all-pro dud – Sugar Bowl, NFL Draft, blogger mockery, and now this hold out. Get over yourself.

Vick Watch: His buddy Taylor copped to a plea and presumably flipped on him; apparently, Vick financed the entire operation. Meanwhile, some p.r. "genius" told Vick it would be a good idea to go on the radio. Fizzle. (But isn't it blissful that this story was jammed down toward the bottom of the sports page by everything else?) Vick is so screwed.

NBA Robberies: Were Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry's robberies linked?

College Football: Contrary to speculation that they would take a break in their series, Michigan and Notre Dame will play through 2031. I can look forward to at least another 25 years of watching a game where I jeer BOTH teams.

Quickie Book Club: "Dixieland Delight," by Clay Travis. You'll recognize the name: He's the lead columnist for SportsLine. Also, of anyone in the mainstream media, he's considered a Great Friend of Sports Bloggers. He's also an exceptionally good guy.

But, most importantly, he's written a hell of an entertaining book, which is based on his tour of SEC football schools from last fall. If you love college football, this is a must-have, but even if you don't love college football, it's like hearing awesome road-trip stories told by a great buddy. Travis' stories just happen to include Tim Tebow. Here's an Amazon link.

(Disclosure: Clay and I share a book agent. But just because the sales of Clay's book will almost assuredly help pave the way for my own future book deal, don't buy it for that... if "don't" means "do!")

UPDATE: Former ESPN anchor star Robin Roberts has revealed she has breast cancer. She remains one of the Top 3 greatest talents every produced by the network -- as her full-time gig hosting Good Morning America affirms. Here's to her full and healthy recovery.

Quinn needs to sign and get in camp. Sometimes I wonder if its the player or the agent that really holds these things up. From listening to Clayton on Mike and Mike this morning, sounds like JaMarcus Russell is nowhere close to signing either.

I think the Celtics gave up too much for Garnett. 5 players plus 2 first round picks?!?! That's just too much to give up in my opinion. You can compete now, but where are you in 4-5 years when Pierce, Allen, and KG are in their mid 30's? That's if they even are still on the team. Overall I like getting Garnett, but they gave up to much.

If you haven't read it, check out Simmons' article on tWWL about the trade. I think it helps quell any concers about what the C's gave up for KG. Granted, rose colored glasses abound, but still, as a C's fan I find myself agreeing with BS on basically every single point he made in the article.

Espcially since one of the first round picks was initially Minnys from the Wally, Ricky Davis trade.

So the Celtics now have 3 superstars. I know this is ESPN's wet dream finally coming true (since its affecting a Boston or NY team), but does Boston have any depth left? Are the hoping that Garnett, Allen, and Pierce all play 45 minutes a game?

Please tell me because when I look at this trade, it almost looks like Boston traded away all their depth and mortgaged their future for Garnett.

They may have the "Big 3" now but are they as deep as Chicago or Detroit?

As a Reds fan who has had the opportunity to watch Lohse's maddening inconsistency this season, I just want to warn the Phillies fans in advance. If you're not on heart medication by now, you soon will be after watching Lohse pitch. You may want to invest in a dartboard so you can take a guess how he will do in any given start. You've been warned, Phillies Nation. Watch at your own peril.

Brian, I think the worry might be about Ortiz more then Drew. I personally from watching the games think Ortiz needs to get his knee fixed and if the Red Sox add a Dye that would allow him to miss the 4-6 weeks it will take for him to recover. Also the Herald story talked about since Dye can play first base allowing Youkillis and Lowell to get some rest since they both seemed to wear down the 2nd half of last year.

Dan , the thing baout the Celtics trade is that there is sure to be a couple of veterans that look at the celtics and say I want to play there as I have a chance to win and the Celtics will fill the depth on the team that way.

Great day in sports? A great coach dies and the NBA gets one trade started (its not even a done deal yet)...i guess no one broke the law yesterday, so thats good. Sports was never really in danger so it didn't need to be saved and losing one of the great coaches of all time doesn't exactly help sports now does it?

Yesterday might have been a nice reprieve, but every one's sticking their heads in the sand and acting as if the giant elephant has left the room. In reality Vick/Donaghy/TDF/Bonds won't go away that easily. If anything they'll just get worse as the summer drags on. Hopefully Bonds breaks the record soon (or blows out his knee, we can only hope) and everyone just ignores him. But knowing tWWL and everyone else they'll just keep beating the dead horse.

On a lighter note, I'm a big phillies fan. While I'm excited they've been doing well (9 in 10), they do this every year and get our hopes up. Then the invariably lose a couple of games, bow out of the division race and then pin their hopes on the Wild Card, always losing out on that in the last couple of games. With that said I still think the NL East is wide open. Castillo has bad knees, Teixeira is having a bad year and Pedro could go either way (personally, i don't think he's gonna add much). While the phillies are still banged up (Just lost Utley and Madson to the DL and Victorino & Borne both got hurt last night) there's still 2 months left and anything can happen.

I agree with Joey. Why is Quinn not being signed the big story? Russell was the freakin' No. 1 pick!!! I can't remember the last time a No. 1 wasn't signed BEFORE the draft and now he's not signed before training camp. This is such a bigger story than Quinn's holdout.

cmfost,Yanks are not catching the Sox in any event. After making up ground, in the last 10 games, the Yanks won 7 and Sox 8 games. With 57 games remaining, an 8 game lead is 14% of the remaining games. So if Sox win 60% of remaining games, Yanks need to win 74% which is not going to happen. Yanks would need to win at least 5 out of the 6 remaining games against the Sox which also wouldn't happen.

However only 4 games back behind Cleveland and 2.5 behind Seattle in the WC race is ver achievable. I would give the Yanks a 50/50 shot at the WC, I would give them only a 5% chance at the division.

The guy filling in at 2nd base for the Mets was hitting .350. Is the replacement for Minnesota, Castillo, that much better. Castillo has some serious knee problems.

I do not think Russell is as big a deal as Quinn because it is the Raiders. Quinn wanted to go to Cleveland was politicing before the draft how Cleveland was his favorite team and now he won't sign because he is not being offered top 10 money.

I do wonder like Dan said how much influence an agent has over the player and who works for who.

Someone needs to slap Quinn upside the head and say you are not a top 10 draft pick, you may of thought you were but the NFL GM's did not think so. So guess what you are not going to get paid like one.

I find it funny when these prima donnas hold out for more money and then find out a couple of years laster that they really weren't that good. Maybe Quinn feels he needs to sign that contract now because in 3-4 years, he will be getting backup QB money.

As a Browns fan, I personally do not care in the slightest that Quinn is not signed. Most Browns fan will agree that Quinn should sit for the first part of the season anyways so getting him in now or in another 2 weeks does not matter since Quinn would not be starting week 1 anyways.

It is the "National" media making this a bigger deal than it really is. The main thing for Cleveland was getting Thomas and Wright in on time and they are both in.

This is where the NBA has it right. The contracts for the top picks in the draft are basically set in stone. You know more or less what you'll be making based on where you are drafted. The NFL needs to learn that lesson and make the contracts automatic for the first 3 years.

Ok, if this rumor is correct why would the red sox hurt the bullpen only to help the Offense unless they had a deal in place to get a reliever to take that spot. The current rumor is Dye for Pena and Delcarmen.

As a Celtics' fan, I LOVE the trade. KG has always been one of my favorite players in the league, and he's still got a couple of good years left in him. He's a superb athelete who plays his hardest, all the time, and will be a lot of fun to watch. No, they don't have much depth, but the only decent player they gave up was Big Al. Minny did us a favor by taking Telfair off our hands. With the PP-RA-KG combo, you'd only need 2 of them on the floor to beat most of the teams in the East, so they should be fine, minute-wise (for the regular season, at least). I'd look for the C's to pick up a veteran point guard at some point.

As for the East, the Heat and the Pistons are on the decline, and the Cavs are still a one man show, so the time is right to make a run for the Finals.

the problem with NFL vs. NBA contracts is that in the NBA the money is guaranteed regardless of performance. NFL contracts are about the signing bonus and possible performance bonuses more than anything else.

dan, nobody has said that they are the absolute best team in the east but you would have to say they are one the top 4 teams in the east and can only improve based on what they add in terms of veteran free agents

The Red Sox today traded righthanded pitcher Joel Pineiro and cash considerations to the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later.

Pineiro was 1-1 with a 5.03 ERA in 31 relief appearances with the Red Sox this season before being designated for assignment on July 23. He accepted an optional assignment to Triple-A Pawtucket on July 25.

Quinn and his agent just need to watch a video of the draft and remember that embarrassment, then get a deal done so he can start learning and not make a bigger ass of himself. Supposedly they are stuck on the performance bonuses...probably because his agent is trying to get him a zillion dollars if he throws one pass, but Savage wants it to be a little more logical and realistic.

The Proctor for Betemit deal seems like teams making a deal for the sake of making a deal. How badly do the Yanks need a backup infielder? A-Rod and Jeter play almost every game along with Cano. Now Proctor is a workhorse pitcher leading last year in appearances or innings pitched. Proctor is not stellar but gives you innings - which is exactly what the Yanks need.

I don't understand the move unless there is another deal in place to get a Gagne or some other quality pitcher to help out. Maybe it is Hughes into a starting role and Igawa to the pen but I would take Proctor over Igawa any day.

mich/nd rivalry is awesome news - will continue one of the top yearly games

quinn is not asking for top money now - he wants the option to come into bigger money in five years if he becomes a franchise qb...dan is a crybaby who hates all things ND and takes any chance to berate them even though the majority of draft picks are still holding out, including the biggest name of the draft, jamarcus russell. His inability to actual cover sports and instead look directly to the espn.com sidebar links is reaching new heights. Spend twenty minutes and try and figure out what is going on instead of just reading tWWL and regurgitating their headlines and adding your own quasi-controversial spin.

C's: bringing in a bunch of All-Stars didn't work for LA (Malone, Payton).

Quinn: With Frye, is Quinn even expected to play this year as the starter? The hold-out shouldn't affect his development schedule for becoming the starter, but it WILL give him an unwanted reputation in the lockerroom.

ESPN is reporting that Engel Beltre would be included in an Eric Gagne deal with the Rangers, giving Texas three players.

Kason Gabbard and David Murphy are believed to be the other two. This makes the trade look a whole lot better for Texas. Beltre is just 17 and is even further away than Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz, but he was one of the top international players available in the 2006 signing period. He ended up taking a $600,000 bonus from Boston.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.